Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes
by May All Your Bacon Burn
Summary: This isn't one of your stories. Good guys don't exist. We're what's left of the peace this world once had. But tell me, why do we protect those who hate us? Who watches the Watchmen? Darkish fic. AkuRoku


Summary: This isn't one of your stories. Good guys don't exist. We're what's left of the peace this world once had. But tell me, why do we protect those who hate us? Who watches the Watchmen? Darkish fic. [AkuRoku]

So....yeah. I read/watched Watchmen and I liked it a lot. So I wrote this. It's not a parody, because I changed up the characters and the storyline. Um, thanks?  
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It was raining again.

Roxas sighed as he sat back in his limo, wondering if Sora would be too upset if he skipped...But then he remembered that Axel would be returning from his latest 'self-appointed' mission, so he had to be there. While Sora understood that the blond needed time to himself once in awhile, he was the only one Axel listened to, with the exception of (sometimes) Riku. Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair and told the driver to head to the Usual Spot. _'The streets are empty...You usually don't see that much anymore,'_ Well, things had changed a lot in the past couple monthes. War had broken out, and all that was left was who exactly Hollow Bastion would side with.

Both decisions were like signing a death warrant. Leon was trying everything he could to bring peace, but there was only so much one man could do. Especially against Ansem Wise and Xehanort Xemnas. Muttering under his breath, the blond got out of the limo when he reached the "abandoned" building, pulling his long, expensive coat closer to block out the rain as he ran to the door, throwing it open then dodging the trap Xigbar had left of three purple arrows shooting at him.

"Roxas."

Blue eyes looked up to see his colleague and friend, Riku. "Nice night."

Riku chuckled, motioning for the blond to follow him. "That never stops Sora, you know that. He's expecting you tomorrow, Yuna and Xigbar out on patrol tonight."

Roxas sighed, but didn't say anything. It was probably a good thing that he would be out tomorrow. It was his father's birthday, and the man had made it perfectly clear that he didn't want to know Roxas existed until morning when he woke the boy up for school. _'Asshole. I can see why mom left you, you dirty perverted scum of the earth,'_

"You're late." Sora muttered before he smiled. "Hurry up, I gotta tell you all something important."

"Tell me why we're taking orders from a kid again?" Xigbar snipped in the back of the room, lighting a cigar. "You're acting like this is a birthday party instead of a meeting."

Riku immediately jumped to Sora's defense. "If you have such a problem, why don't you leave? I heard that you were doing well with the government anyway, why do you need us?"

The black haired man rolled his eye, putting up his hands in mock-defense. "Sorry, dude. No need to bite my head off."

Roxas let out a cross between a groan and a sigh. The room was circular, walls white and the floor was metal. No one knew what the building used to be used for, but Sora had stumbled upon it and decided to make it their "base". Pushed against the walls were pews, looking like they were taken from a church, and in the center there was a chair for whoever was holding the meeting. Though it hadn't been used in awhile, since nothing very important was happening. Roxas took a seat, noticing that Axel wasn't back yet. Odd...he was usually the first one here. Then again...Axel did whatever he wanted instead of following orders.

"You're boyfriend's not back yet." Tifa noted, arms crossed and not looking at the boy next to her.

"I can see that, he's not hard to miss." Roxas hissed back, glaring at her.

"Stop it." Zack ordered from Roxas's right. "Tifa, stop being a bitch. Roxas, Axel's fine. I saw him on the way over here."

Roxas nodded. Riku, Xigbar, Cloud, Yuna, and Sora sat down, though the brunette took the center chair. Everyone unconsciously stiffened; something serious what happening then. Roxas scanned the room, noticing besides Axel, they were missing someone.

"Where's-?"  
"Demyx is dead." Sora said, answering his unfinished question.

Immediately, there was shouts and yells. Roxas stared, eyes wide, at their self appointed leader. For once, in the five years Roxas had known him, Sora looked upset. He just sat there, head down as he waited for people to stop shouting. _'Demyx....is dead? How? He was always the careful one!'_ This didn't make any sense. How could their most innocent member be killed?

"Tifa!" Xigbar easily roared over everyone else, making them quiet down. "You were his partner last night! What the hell happened!?"

Tifa scowled. "Nothing happened! We did patrol and that was that. He went home! I watched him enter his house, there's wasn't anyone else on the streets!"

"Demyx had more security than even Ansem Wise...how could someone get through that?" Yuna asked Sora.

"I don't know." Sora whispered. "I just got a call from Leon this morning...he wanted me to tell you all before it went on the news. And it gets worse." Everyone fell silent, letting him talk. "The experiments that created all of us....are going global. Soon, every nation around the world will have their own army. Soon, superheroes won't be super. They also made something that can strip us of our powers. I think that's what happened to Demyx. The shock was too big, it killed him."

No one spoke. Roxas felt his hands trembling. He loved what had happened to him; not the way it had, but the outcome. The result. He was _special_, he was _different_. He didn't feel useless anymore, because he was apart of something that he was proud of. But they could take that all away. He knew who was behind the shipping to the other nations; it was Ansem Wise. The man thought that it would bring a pack with the rest of the world if they all had equal balance.

Idiot.

"There's more, isn't there?" Zack asked.

Sora nodded. "Someone is over-ruling Leon. They're trying to make a law against us. It'll be illegal to do what we do."

"They can't do that!" Yuna argued. "We do this because of their mistake! They can't just push us back into the crowd and expect us to be able to go one with our lives! We help people, and this is how they repay us!?"

"They're scared...." Sora tried, but this time Tifa joined in.

"So what?! We risk our lives for these people, and they're **scared**? Of some of us, I can understand. But not everyone is a psychotic **freak**-"

"Good to know that my teammates think of me."

Roxas sighed in relief to see Axel, who dropped the hood of his leather cloak and sat next to the blond, ignoring the looks he got from the large cut on his face that was dripping blood everywhere. Tifa glared at him, losing her thought of what she was arguing about in her hatred for the red haired man. Roxas tried to ignore her, but it proved diffficult. It was obvious that of everyone here, the short teenager was the only one who would stick up for Axel. Everyone else was just too afraid of him.

"Axel, you should get that checked out." Sora muttered, seeing the cut. It spread across his forehead diagonally to his left black, teardrop tattoo on his cheek. "What happened?"

"...German Shepard." he said, whipped the blood away with his sleeve. Roxas noticed that his gloves were burnt, meaning he had used his powers.

"A....German Shepard." Zack echoed, looking surprised. "You mean you let a German Shepard get that close to you that he could tear into your face."

Axel shrugged. "Didn't want to kill it. Didn't do anything wrong." He looked around before looking back to Sora. "Gonna clean this up. Don't want to get blood on your floor."

"Uh, thanks...."

Roxas watched him leave, ignoring everyone else as they began arguing again over the new law and Ansem Wise. After a short pause, he got up and followed Axel into the "Living Room", where Sora had put in a fountain. Just like he thought, Axel was using it to wash off some of the blood, having shed his coat onto a couch. The blond sighed, seating himself on the edge of the fountain, waiting for Axel to finish.

"Was it that bad?" he asked quietly.

Axel paused, green eyes flashing between absinthe and charcoal. "She was six."

"...What happened?"

The red head snorted, removing his elbow-length gloves and throwing them onto the cloak. "Parents came to me specifically. Promised them I would find her. I did. She was kidnapped by some ordinary thug, held there in basement for two weeks. He left, so I snuck into basement, only to find the furnice warm. Piece of her dress inside. Went out back to see dogs eating her fingers. Nothing else left."

Roxas stared at him. "What did he do exactly? Hell, Axel, what did **you** do?"

"He raped her. Burned her dress. Cut her skin to make her cry then feed her to the dogs." Axel eyes finally settled on crimson red. "So I cut him up, burned him a little, and fed him to the dogs as well. But I kept dogs. They didn't do anything wrong."

"You're the only person I know that would keep the dogs." Roxas said, smiling slightly. "Are you okay? I can tell you were angry."

Axel shrugged. "You know me too well."

"Did you hear Sora then? About Demyx and the new law?"

He nodded. "Heard about it from Leon a few days ago. Wants me to kill Ansem."

"Are you?" Roxas asked. It was rare that Leon asked anything of them, and as he said before, everyone was afraid of Axel.

"Thinking about it. But only if law doesn't pass." Axel frowned slightly, looking out the window in front of them of the city. "Not going to stop. Never going to stop."

"What? Fighting?"

He nodded again. "What I was made to do. Mom said so."

Roxas wanted to say something against that, but couldn't think of anything. Unlike the rest of them, who had gotten the experiment thrown at them and were locked up for a week, Axel's mother and father were apart of the project, and he was locked up in isolation for ten years. They did many different things to him, while everyone else only got one. His abilities over fire were most obvious, but then the changing eye color (depending on mood), fangs, speed and non-aging were added. They thought they could have one major weapon and an army of smaller ones.

Only, Axel rebelled. After being locked up and more or less tortured, he broke out. Sora had found out about him and took him in, though the red head wasn't so happy to wake up with the brunette hovering over his face while stitching his arm back together (he explained he had gotten shot a few times, and the arms was almost severed). But it had healed quickly enough, and he decided to join their group, though some of them hadn't been so enthused. Sora appointed him first Tifa's partner, but they clashed until Axel nearly killed her. So then Roxas got him.

"Ready to go back?" Roxas asked softly, watching as his eyes went back to their acid green. "C'mon, I bet Sora's almost done."

Axel nodded, putting his gloves and cloak back on. They both walked back into the meeting room. Seeing that the patrolling team was gone for the night, Roxas knew that the meeting was over. _'Where to go? Maybe I can crash here. Dad's not going to let me back into the house,'_ If he could, he'd just ask Sora or Axel if he could stay with them, but he knew it wouldn't be possible. Sora lived with Riku, who lived with his foster father. And Axel....actually, no one knew where Axel lived. Hell, they didn't even know Axel's real name.

They all had real names. Sora was the first one to announce to the group that his real name was Ciel Mitoshi, who lived on Destiny Islands with Riku (Terra Ristuyawa) before moving here when it had been bombed. Yuna was actually Aeris Grainsborough, Zack Kaneda Kowa, Cloud Sky Strife, Xigbar Braig Noshita. Roxas told them that his name was Ven Nayoko, and that his father was Cid Nayoko, who owned a large military company in Radiant Garden. Tifa was the last to tell them her name was actually Tiffiny Lockhart, but she hated her name so she permanently shortened it. When they asked Axel, seeing as he was the only one to not give a real name, he merely shrugged and said that he didn't have one anymore. He had given it up upon leaving his parents.

After getting permission from Sora to stay in the building, Roxas bid Riku, Sora and Axel good-night before taking up the couch, turning the large TV on where it sat on the wall and wondering, idly, if Demyx would be on TV. _'Demyx, dead....I can't believe it. He had told us his name was stupid, so he gave himself a new name. Myde. It's nice, cute. Fitted him I guess,'_ Sighing, he watched the news. War, death, war, murder, war, food, dieting, war, rape, murder, murder, war. _'Depressing,'_ He turned it off, rolling on his side before falling asleep.

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Cloud was the next one to be killed.

A couple weeks later, he and Zack were ambushed when someone had called them and said that a gang was holding some children hostage. When they showed up, both men were shot. Only Cloud, having sensed something wrong, pushed his friend out of the way and got shot in the head. Zack only got hit in the shoulder, but upon hearing that Cloud died saving him, dropped off the face of the Earth. He didn't tell anyone or say anything; he just left. Tifa took it hard, since both Cloud and Zack had been her friends growing up. A month later, she told them she was resigning. She was pregnant and she couldn't continue this kind of lifestyle, especially not with a baby.

Everyone wished her well, even Axel, and then she left for Midgar. And then came the shocker. Sora dropped out, saying that something had come up, and he was needed home. Most likely, permanently. Of course, Riku followed. Yuna took over, and for the next year and a half, things were okay. Roxas finally moved away from his dad, completing college courses online and whizzing through them; he wasn't the top in his class for nothing. Xigbar was around less and less, having work for both Radiant Garden and Midgar on getting dirt on the other. Axel ended up killing Ansem, to stop the global selling of the chemical that was used on them all. And it was then, on the eve of the day that the war was over, that Leon passed Act XIII.

No more heroes. No more vigillanties.

Each hero was made to go public with their identity. Or rather, the ones that were left. Axel saw it as a betrayal, what Leon did, since his agreement was freedom in exchange for killing Ansem. Roxas didn't even have to ask if Axel would obey the new law. It was written on his face and in his eyes the second it was announced on TV. Yuna, Roxas, Sora, Riku, Tifa, and Xigbar revealed themselves to the world, and had to swear to never use their powers again. Well, except Xigbar, who decided that he would rather be a pawn of the government than give up his job. 'Too much fun', he had said.

They were demanded to tell where exactly Axel was. No one knew, so they couldn't say. Leon then appeared on TV, asking the red haired man to expose himself, or face the penalty. In response, Axel sent him a couple of cut up bodies in trash bags with a note. Sprawled upon it messily was "_**nEver ObeY LIeS**_".

So, they fell back in 'normalcy', whatever the hell that was. Yuna pointed out that maybe it was best. People had begun protesting, since the police had gone on strike. They thought they weren't needed, because of the supers. In the end, everyone forgot about them. Well, except when they moved into a neighborhood and the new neighbors noticed that, if they stayed long enough, they never aged. Tifa invited everyone over for Christmas, for a chance to meet her daughter. Everyone noticed that she looked exactly like Cloud. Tifa had named her Namine.

The black haired women shocked them all by admitting she had invited Axel, but he turned her down. "He told me he wasn't very good around kids." she had said, smiling. "You know, he doesn't scare me like he used to." Roxas eventually took over his father's company when the man was killed by one of his many girlfriends. He had found his mother, but didn't contact her; turned out she wasn't any better than his father. No wonder they had to split up, since both were reminded of themselves in each other. It was sickening to Roxas.

Roxas didn't see a lot of Axel anymore. He could tell that the red-head was looking after him though because every morning, Roxas would come into his kitchen to see it a mess. Axel obviously didn't believe in grocery shopping, so he took Roxas's food and left money for him. So the blond also got into the habit of buying dog food, remembering the German Shepards Axel was now taking care of. It went on like that for awhile, and almost a year after the law was passed, Roxas thought that things had settled down.

Yuna was announced dead not shortly after.

She was shot in the head by a man named Sephiroth, who turned out was obsessed with her when she had been a Superhero. She had turned him down, and he killed her. Roxas, Xigbar and Tifa were at the funeral. When Roxas came the next day, Axel had laid roses. From that point forward, the blond wondered who would be next. It seemed that with the loss of their secret identities, they lost their immortality. Well, figureatively. Instead, he just went on with his life, trying not to think about how when he watched the news, there was something Axel had done there, or how he bought dog food and never used it. He allowed it all to pass him as Hollow Bastion fell into a deeper, darker despair.

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_**~Five Years Later~**_

Roxas was always a light sleeper, so he snapped up when he heard rummaging through his cabinets. He paused, however, thinking that it was more than likely Axel, since he was the only person who would make that much noise in someone else's house. Sighing, he got up, deciding that he could at least acknowledge his friend after avoiding him for five years. He peeked into the kitchen, rolling his eyes to see the red head with a thing of what looked like bread dipped in chocolate. When had he bought that?  
"Morning."

Roxas smiled, sitting next to the taller male. "Hello, Axel. I haven't seen you in awhile."

Axel scuffed, green eyes giving him a once-over before turning away. "Because you haven't wanted to see me."

"...Sorry."

The red head shrugged, his eyes flickering between sky blue and his original color. "Leon's been wanting to see me."

"You mean besides the usual?" Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow when he nodded. "What does he want? I thought that the second he saw you, he'd throw you in jail..."

Axel paused, looking thoughtful. "Someone killed Xigbar."

Silence. Roxas gaped at him, standing up. "What?! Xigbar?? But...he's been working for the military! How can someone just...kill him?!"

His eyes darkened to purple, scowling at nothing. "...Setup."

"You...you really think that?" Roxas muttered. Xigbar had a lot of enemies, and it didn't really surprise him that he was finally dead. Still, why would Axel assume that? "Is that what Leon wants to see you about?"

"Thinks that I might cause something." Axel replied, looking up at his partner. "Doesn't want me to get everyone on to it."

Roxas frowned, sitting again. "...Who would set Xigbar up? Not many people like him enough to do that."

Axel shook his head. "They attacked in his apartment. Throw him off a balcony." He glared at the blond, hands turning into fists. "How many can over-power us?"

Roxas sighed. "You have a point, but..." he shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "But there's nothing we can do. They already know who I am, I can't just...go back."

Axel sighed as well, standing up. Roxas noticed that the dog food was gone, meaning that the red head had made two trips. It was obvious he was making sure that the blond would come out to talk to him. The tall male went to the largest window in the house, making to step out of it before he paused. Roxas bit his lip, knowing what would be coming.

"...Why did you give up?"

"Axel, I didn't give up." The blond said, frustrated. "We all tried to protect the law, and law states that we're not to be heroes. End of story."

Axel frowned. "We're being moved." When Roxas only blinked at him, he continued. "Moved to the side. Off. They're picking us off....since the beginning....I think I found Zack...but it doesn't matter."

"You....found him?" Roxas whispered, eyes wide.

Axel smirked. "Cemetery. On the corner. Picked off like the rest." He turned back, not meeting Roxas's eyes. "...Want my partner back..."

"I wished I could come back, Axel." Roxas muttered, staring at him.

For the long time that they had known each other, both knew that this was a rare moment. Since the accident, as they called it, Axel didn't like showing anything. Skin, feelings, anything. For him to admit that he missed him, it made Roxas want to screw the law and go with him to see what he meant by 'picking us off'. But he couldn't. Maybe five years of security had made him soft, a coward. He just looked away, sighing, and when he looked back, Axel was gone.

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Should I continue? I've been holding on to this for almost a year. O.o Wow. Don't worry, I'm coming back to writing guys. Next up is Home, then probably Yellow as Blood. :D

R&R


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